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Nancy Mercer filed a petition for protective order from her daughter back in 2012 after court documents show there was an altercation between Alaina and her partner, Christina Brown. Mercer stated:

“My daughter has assaulted me in the past, has hit me and pushed me while she is living at my home. Her partner has said she would touch our house. While that threat was said in anger, I do not feel free from verbal or physical abuse in my home and am uncomfortable and anxious in their presence.”

The order was in effect until July of this year, when Mercer was found shot to death in her own home on May 18. The spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told us they had responded to Mercer’s home at least once before to help – within the confines of the law.

Court documents also show that the father of Alaina’s child and one of her sisters also filed a PPO from Alaina just days before she was arrested, stating in documents that “my sister is a suspect in my mother’s murder and has tried to forcibly take her daughter from my home even though I have custody now of the child.”